Promoting strong public schools for Providence\’s East Side and beyond

Our Latest Update

In cases you missed it, below is an email sent to the ESPEC mailing list on July 8th

1. Nathan Bishop Renovation. Renovations to the Nathan Bishop building are well-underway. The most obvious evidence of progress has been the removal of the exterior staircases, but work goes on inside as well. Our latest information is that work is substantially on schedule. Demolition and asbestos abatement will continue during the summer, and late summer and early fall will see the start of new construction, installation of fixtures, and so on. We are waiting for word on an official groundbreaking ceremony.

2. Nathan Bishop Principal Search. The advertisement for the principal position at Bishop has been posted on the Providence Schools website. The ad lists the opening date f8or applications as June 30th, and states that the position is open until filled. The person hired as principal will participate in the planning as it goes forward over the next year (see below). Interviews are likely to begin the week of July 28th, and the selection should be made by the end of the summer. The Superintendent’s Nathan Bishop Committee (which includes some ESPEC members) will be represented on the interview committee. We had hoped that the principal could be hired full-time in the Fall of 2008 (and paid to help plan the school during the coming year), but budget considerations apparently preclude this. At this point, we are encouraging the School Department to allocate some funds to allow the incoming principal to serve on a part-time consulting basis on the Planning Committee, but we do not know if this can happen.

The job advertisement has an attached “white paper” that describes in some detail the vision for the school. We strongly encourage prospective parents and others interested in the success of the New Nathan Bishop to read this document. Here is a link to the ad and the white paper.

Of special note: The principal position description reiterates the School Department’s commitment to the principle that the school will open one grade at a time, with the first 6th grade class to enter in the Fall of 2009. ESPEC has regarded this particular feature of the proposal as essential to the establishment of a culture of academic excellence at Bishop, so we are glad that it is part of the advertisement.

3. Our Next Public Meeting. At our May public meeting detailing the final design for Bishop, ESPEC announced plans for a June meeting focusing on the academic program and school leadership. Unfortunately, we have not felt that we have gained enough concrete information to justify holding this meeting at the present time. (Please see details immediately below). We now plan to hold this meeting in September or October.

4. Nathan Bishop Steering Committee.
The Superintendent’s Nathan Bishop Steering Committee continues to meet; the most recent meeting being last week. In the near future, the committee will be reconstituted as the Planning Committee, with a more significant contingent of education policy experts and Providence Public School faculty and staff. That committee will be engaged in working out the details of the academic program and, most significantly, writing the site-based management plan for the school. Since such a plan typically takes six months to complete. We had hoped the Planning Committee would start meeting this summer, but we have been told that this is not possible. We are disappointed that the process will be delayed, and we intend to continue pressing a message to the School Department that progress must be made by January so that parents will know enough about the New Nathan Bishop’s program to include the school as a choice for their children in the Fall of 2009. More generally, we remain firmly committed to making the New Nathan Bishop a model school for both families in the neighborhood and for the Providence Public Schools as a whole, and we may need to engage the neighborhood’s help in advocating for this standard. If anyone is interested in helping to advocate, or in serving on the Planning Committee, please reply to this email and we will try to get you involved.

5. Anti-Bumping Legislation. Following the public meeting last Fall, at which many members of the community expressed great concern about the “bumping” of junior but highly effective teachers, The ESPEC steering committee submitted a proposal for legislation to Senator Rhoda Perry and Representative Gordon Fox, each of whom introduced legislation in their respective chambers. Senator Perry’s bill, which was the stronger of the two, was heard by the Senate Education Committee. ESPEC Steering Committee members and other interested parents testified in support of the legislation. The Fox bill, which was co-sponsored by Rep. Edith Ajello, was heard by the House Committee on Health, Education and Welfare. That bill drew the support of the Rhode Island Department of Education, the Rhode Island Association of School Committees, and the Providence School Department. It was, however, opposed by the Rhode Island chapter of the National Education Association, the American Federation of Teachers, and the Providence Teachers’ Union. In the last days of the legislative session, both bills failed to make it out of committee. While we did not achieve the result we desired, we learned some important lessons about the legislative process this year, and the door is open next year to picking up where we have left off. If anyone is interested in helping in next year’s legislative effort, please indicate so in a reply email.